After occupying the kiosk located at the intersection of the L and G trains at the Lorimer/Metropolitan stop, zine culture hub The Newsstand will be closing after hosting its final event on Saturday, January 25, according to gallery curator and manager Lele Saveri.

“I basically feel that it needs to have a little break,” said Saveri in an interview at his new gallery, Muddguts, last week. “It’s something that’s gone on for seven months and it was supposed to go on for just a month, so it was way more than I expected it to be.”

The Newsstand came together when two of Saveri’s friends, who work for the All Day Everyday art production company based in New York, approached him to ask if he wanted to host a zine fair in the space. It was vacant at the time after the closing of a traditional subway newsstand.

“I had a passion for zines, and used to put together my own little things,” Saveri said. “I did, and still do, put together this thing called Eight Ball Zine Fair, a fair for zines on pool tables in pool halls. I do it twice a year in June and December; always in different pool halls.”

The idea behind The Newsstand was to combine the normality, “the mundane life,” to something that’s more artistic and underground like zine culture.

“The underground is the perfect place to be,” Saveri said. “Here in New York, it doesn’t matter what class you come from. Everybody gets the train, so everybody gets to see The Newsstand.”

Originally, Saveri’s backers were intending to rent out the space for only one month after securing a month-to-month lease with the MTA’s Real Estate Department. As the space continued to play host to successful events, one month turned into eight, but Saveri is now ready to turn his full attention to a new gallery he is curating for at 41 Montrose Avenue.

“Muddguts to me is just in a very early stage,” he said. “What I hate of galleries is that they are really just a shop for art. This should not be just a shop. To me it needs to be you walk in and learn something or you create.”

Saveri said he is confident that The Newsstand or something like it will spring up again in this city, and that it is likely something others will try around the globe as well.

“I’d like to go into other cities,” he suggested. “There has been so much interest from so many countries, like Japan and England, there’s people from Hong Kong coming, Canadians; so many people have been trying to redo The Newsstand somewhere else. So if I manage to redo it elsewhere, I’ll be happy.”